[Eventing]Simple Save Point System, No scripting knowledge required. Options

[shozanmario93]

~~Simple Save Point System~~

...Or SSPS, if you prefer abbreviations.

Difficulty Level: So Easy Your Computer-Illiterate Grandma Could Do It

[Show/Hide] Tutorial Outline

1. Introduction
2. Pre-Stuff
3. Event Setup
4. Script Setup
5. Animation (Optional)
6. Final Notes

~~ Introduction
I'm going to go on record and say that this is my first tutorial, so my method might be a little sloppy or incoherent. Just bear with me, m'kay? If you took the [significantly small amount of] time to look at the outline, you may or may not have seen a section called "Script Edits". Now, before you start shouting about how I advertised this tutorial as "No scripting knowledge required", take some more time to go to that section and see what it's all about. You'll find that you do not, in fact, require any scripting knowledge whatsoever. But enough idle banter, let's get to the meat of this stew.

P.S. I did not screenshot every step of this tutorial like I should have. But I'm too lazy to go back and do it, so deal.

What This Tutorial Will Do
Set up a Save Point
 savechoicesref.png ( 165.09K ) Number of downloads: 34


What This Tutorial Will Optionally Do
Set up a One-Use Save Point
 alreadysavedref.png ( 212.09K ) Number of downloads: 23


Add an animation when a player activates it
 saveanimref.png ( 235.8K ) Number of downloads: 19


What This Tutorial Will NOT Do
Teach you how to script
Set up a Save Point on its own
Instantly make your game popular
Make you grow an awesome beard
Eat your family
Rape your dog
Give you up
Let you down (DISCLAIMER: I do not actually claim this)
Run around and desert you
Make you cry (DISCLAIMER: This, of course, depends on your patience)
Say goodbye
Tell a lie and hurt you

~~ Pre-Stuff
"Pre-Stuff" is my term for all the planning that goes on before actually getting into the codes, events, and general refuse that these things tend to bring. For this tutorial, however, the only bits of "Pre-Stuff" you need are where to put your save points, and what you want them to look like (can be a tile or pentagram something else).

Where To Put Your Save Points
Pretty self-explanatory, really. I would suggest putting them before a major event that could potentially cause a game-over for your players, like a mini-boss encounter. I say "mini-boss encounter" because I reserve Save Zone warps for big boss fights. What are Save Zone warps? Well, those will be covered in a different tutorial.

What Your Save Point Looks Like
There are two ways you can change the look of your save point. Stick the Call Event (explained later) on top of a walkable tile, or give a sprite to the Call Event itself (like you would for a quick-door or chest). My excellent mapper (who also happens to be my younger brother) prefers to use a white floor tile to mark his save points, like so:
 savetileref.png ( 150.02K ) Number of downloads: 15


...But you can choose whatever. The white tile in the screenshot is on the RTP Tileset A near the bottom, for those who want to use it. Just to the left of it are other good candidates for Save Point tiles, but it all depends on location and/or your personal style/preference. Optionally, you can also set up the animation you'll use for the Save Point in the "Pre-Stuff" phase.

~~ Event Setup
This is where all the action takes place, somewhat like a concubine... *Ehem* Anyway, this tutorial only requires one common event, and a short one at that. Sounds easy already, doesn't it? Well it is. It's so easy your computer-illiterate grandma could do it. Here is how you start off on your train of Save Point goodiness.
Create a new Common Event and call it "Save Point" or something to that effect (you'll be using it in the Call Event).
Edit it so that it looks like this, for now at least:
 cmneventref.png ( 14.32K ) Number of downloads: 19


And here is how each part of that event contributes to the system.

CODE

@>Text: -, -, Dark, Bottom
  :           : Would you like to save?
@>Show Choices: Yes, No

How It Contributes: Not absolutely necessary to have, but I like giving my players options.

CODE

@>Show Animation: Player, [Save Point]
@>Wait: 60 frame(s)

How It Contributes: One of the optional bits you can add which is explained later in the tutorial. This is to play an animation before the save screen actually opens.

CODE

@>Change Save Access: Enable
@>Open Save Screen
@>Change Save Access: Disable

How It Contributes: This IS the tutorial, dammit! This is the main process that makes the save point work. The surrounding "Change Save Access" commands are explained in the "Script Setup" section.

CODE

@>Control Self Switch: A =ON

How It Contributes: Another of the optional bits you can add which is explained later in this section. This is used for the "One-Time Use" Save Point.

Just add and remove the optional bits as desired, making sure not to touch the main procees unless you're sure it won't implode your computer or some other sort of brain trauma like that. Later on I'll tell you what you can remove (and how to do it "safely") for what you omitted here.

~ Call Event
And this is where we make it all work. For starters, create a new event and place it over the tile you chose for Save Points earlier. A daunting task, I know. Once inside the event editor, if you opted to NOT use a map tile for the Save Point, double click the big checkered box on the bottom left of the window and choose a fitting icon. Next, make a new event command. Navigate down Tab 1 to the "Flow Control" header, and click the shiny button that says "Call Common Event..." In the window that pops up, click the combo box and find the Common Event you just created. Hit "OK" and you're in business! ...At least until you run into a problem regarding your optional bits. If you opted to keep the "Control Self Switch" (and thus make it a One-Use Save Point), then you'll need to add another event page that looks like this.
 eventconditionref.png ( 13.38K ) Number of downloads: 11


~~ Script Setup
You still don't require any scripting knowledge. Here I just tell you how to disable and/or remove the "Save" command from your main menu. It's just a matter of deleting parts (to remove) or setting a value to TRUE (to disable).

To Disable the Save Command
Go into your Script Editor (Paper and Pencil icon right next to the Object Manager) and navigate to the "Game_System" script.
 scriptbarref2.png ( 10.25K ) Number of downloads: 3


From there it's just a simple matter of finding the "@save_disabled" value, and - oh look, there it is! You don't even have to scroll down!
 scripteditref2.png ( 5.76K ) Number of downloads: 5


As I was saying, just edit that value to "TRUE" and you've disabled the option to save. This is also useful for games that do not inherently require saving your game, like BRUTAL MODE ADVENTURE or something similar. In case you didn't figure it out already, this is where the "Change Save Access" commands come into play. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how they work, though, so I'll spare you the details.

The Remove the Save Command Completely
This one's a teensy bit trickier, but the effect is SO much more satisfying than having a big grey "Save" item that does nothing but make your eyes bleed. The first thing you need to do is get into your script editor. This time, though, go down to the "Scene_Menu" script, like so:
 scriptbarref.png ( 7.54K ) Number of downloads: 2


You're going to have to scroll down a little bit to get to where you need to be, but luckily I have a screenshot that includes the line numbers!
 scripttextref.png ( 18.55K ) Number of downloads: 5


Once you've expertly navigated yourself to that section of code, delete line 58, and then delete "s5," from the-now line 59 (starts with "@command_window" and ends with a list of "s#"s). If you're having trouble with this, I have a handy screenshot for you.
 scripteditref.png ( 4.13K ) Number of downloads: 3


However, doing this alone will disable your "Game End" command for some stupid reason... Oh wait! There's ANOTHER snip of code you need to destroy. If you followed the instructions correctly from before my last screenshot, these lines should be 67 and 68. Once you send these lines of code to the depths of electronic hell, your Save Point system is ready to roll!

Wait, I think I may have forgotten something... ... ...Oh yeah! the...

~~ Animation
NOTE: This section is completely optional.

Remember back when I had you make that Common Event? Yeah, you probably encountered a little problem there. Probably the fact that the Animation "Save Point" doesn't exist! Well, here's where you can add that in, if you so desire. As I said before, the animation is COM-PLETE-LY optional and you do not have to include it for any reason at all. But if you like having cool(ish) effects on your Save Points, then this will come in handy. Now, if you want to be generic, you can use an existing animation. If you want to be cool like me, then you'll copy an existing animation and paste it at the bottom, then change the color and sounds used. If you want to be so-cool-that-everyone-who-is-cool-will-look-at-you-and-say-"Damn", though, you'll make your own animation, you cheap bastard.
Rambling aside, this is where optionally setting up your animation in the "Pre-Stuff" phase comes in handy. Not only do you already have your animation, but you also have it sooner than any hack-job tutorial whore who omits the cool optional stuff. If you haven't already made an animation, you can use the one I set up in the demo (which will be attached in the next post... damn attachment size limits). But if you wanna be cool and NOT a copycatter, you'll make your own animation, even if it is just copy/pasting an existing anim and fiddling with it. I made a pretty sweet warp animation from the original "Rise2" animation. THAT, however, will not be available to the public until I release "A Ranger's Myth", the game I'm working on.

And that's pretty much it. Congratulations, you just made it through the first ever Shozanmario93 tutorial! I hope I didn't scar your life with my dripping sarcasm, shameless self-righteousness, redundant redundancy, and general long-windedness. And now for a word from our sponsors...

~~ Final Notes
Just kidding, it's me again! There's no need to credit me for this, it's not like a script or something I can actually develop. If you DO decide to credit me, however, I demand a free chocolate bar with every Save Point you use. And by "Free Chocolate Bar", I mean "Two chocolate bars that you bought with your own money".
In all seriousness, though, I sincerely apologize for the length of this so-called "tutorial". It did not occur to me how much crap I could fit into one post. And the best thing? It only took me 3/4ths of an hour!

If you have any problems, concerns, complaints, issues, ideas, criticisms, or just opinions in general about this tutorial, you can shove 'em...
...into my PM inbox.
Peace out, my brethren and sistren.

You All Just Lost The Game,
Shoz93


~~ Simple Save Point System Demo

...can be found here.

This post has been edited by shozanmario93: Dec 30 2010, 07:18 AM

[Macrowley_Thegre...]

Whoa. Nice. I doubt I could try to do this with RPGXP?

[GreatWhiteWhale]

I...LOVE YOU. DX rick astley, you never fail me.

[Hollows]

hmm.... i really hoped this would rape my dog.
jk, thx, I'll use this. credit will be used where credit isn't
due.